sorry to hear of your missfortune chuck I was expecting you to win. It must have been the dodgy wine hustled with the hot dogs & perhaps people mistook you for a wineo huddled in the doorway & so did not wake you 7 for the championships.

most probably they kept you in the dark to increase there chance of winning!!!

Congrats again to the many competitors who represented the bullboard, I'm sure in great style. Sorry to hear about the difficulties chuk. Sounds like you had your own adventure. So Wojek even made it this year? I know I missed a good one. Can't wait to hear the stories.

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Zapp: Leela, you forgot one thing. Rock crushes scissors. But paper covers rock... and scissors cut paper! Kif, we have a conundrum! Bring me a rock... and search them for paper. (Futurama's back baby!)

I haven't put any tags or whatnot on them yet, my apologies, I'm off to the UK tomorrow for three weeks, and I wanted to get them online beforehand rather than afterwards. Enjoy!

« Last Edit: October 28, 2008, 02:33:08 PM by martinburley »

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"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out to beat the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."

I won 50% of my tournament games. So yeah... not the world champion yet. As a coach though it was good to see my students put their practice into practice, battling slightly further than I did.

Street RPS was a better story - I won over 70% of those games with my student-teammates doing equally well. We generously gave all but 10 of our bucks to someone to buy back into the tournament, but worked our way up to over 400 bucks by the end. Not enough to win, but a creditable effort. The easiest street bucks of the night were the three I won from the Midnight Rider.

In side-games I won a half-hustle beer from The Taxman, a t-shirt from Team Norway, a few other beers, an on-air radio match 4-0, and my first face-to-face match against Rosh (winning with a feed-the-pony paper making it all the sweeter), though admittedly he won our official 'grudge match' post-tournament game.

I know I played Urbanus in the early hours of the morning but can't remember the result.

Oh, and another guy I was looking forward to beating was so scared of losing to me he didn't dare come to Toronto this year. Rumours are he even covered his car in bacon to create a cover story for his absence.

So... a mixed story. But a great time. Totally worth the trip.

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"The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out to beat the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."

-I would like to publicly congratulation yanis on yet another stellar showing. With a Street Title under his belt and two back-to-back appearances in the Final 16, his place among the RPS elite is assured. I'll be the first to say it - yanis is the new Marc "Fistful o' Sneer" Rigaux. I look forward to future interactions with one of the great up-and-coming players in the sport.

-The 2008 Outreach Award goes to the Minneapolis Hustlers. I would like to thank Rev and Tax for supplying myself, Urbanus and the Hood with beer, food and cab fare for the duration of our visit. Although they chose to make their donations through the medium of dice and RPS, I'm sure they would have been just as happy to mail in a check and avoid the bother.

-The Library at the Imperial Pub made an acceptable, if sorry, substitute for Good Tymez. No karaoke or internet access, but larger and with pitchers and a sizable smoking deck. They also turned a blind eye to the friendly dice game on the back deck.

-Norwegians are especially susceptible to prank phone calls, including fake interviews from non-existent newspapers as well as the classic "Is your refrigerator working?" gag (for best results call a sleepy but polite Norwegian at midnight and ask if his refrigerator is running. When he checks and responds in the affirmative, yell "Well, I guess you'd better go catch it then!" before hanging up.

-"Two bums don't make a smoke." - Taxman, the Hustlers

-It's been awhile since I've provided a tourney summary with strategic analysis. No, I'm not talking about the dog and pony show on Saturday night. I'm talking about the REAL tournament; the 2008 International Invitationals. 15 of the top players in the world descended on our hotel room for a buy-in, winner-takes-all, single elim, Half Hustle tournament. With only 15 players, a bye had to be awarded. I nominated Urbanus; Urbanus nominated Pete. With no objections, Pete played Urbanus for the bye. Pete won, and the bye was awarded to Urbanus. The remaining field was matched at random.

Round One Philly's Paper Tiger, along with his unorthodox priming style, was no match for the verbal taunting of the Hustler's Reverend Roshambo. The Hustlers moved two in with the Taxman defeating Australia's Scissorsista. In what could have easily been the final match, I faced my hero Master Pete Lovering. No verbal or physical games would avail me here; I had to clear my mind to the point of vacuity in order to have any chance, and eventually, to succeed. Norway's Pal "The Wall," despite testing positive for hapa, was unable to defeat one of Philly's top female players, Mr Is. Mikkel "The Pickle" avenged his fallen but hairy countryman by defeating Philly's Baconshark. Not satisfied with this, one of Norway's newest players, "The Sledgehammer" delivered a nearly-fatal blow to David Bowie's Package, and the dreams of PJ "Rhymeswithsausage." Sledgehammer made use of an opening ritual by rolling up both of his pant legs to the knee. He also used his trademark priming style, jumping up and down instead of moving his arm. Norway's Bob the Builder was then savagely beaten by Lauren "The Hood" Hood of Philadelphia. Urbanus gets the first round bye.

Round Two In a tense Hustler-vs-Hustler match, Taxman moved the Reverend into a lower tax bracket. This put the Taxman into the "#1 Hustler" spot, formerly owned by Bo aka "Dr Rock" aka "Rocky" aka "Rockmaninoff." Bo didn't make it this year, prefering to stay in Minneapolis and tend the daisies. My next match required me to finish the dreams of David Bowie's Package by defeating Mr Is. The Hood mauled the Pickle, while an amped Sledgehammer demolished Urbanus, who was clearly not warmed up for the match. It's tough on the road.

Round Three Taxman vs the Hood. Tax had the height advantage, but the Hood was heating up. She conceded some early points only to come on strong in the end. As for me, I knew the only way I would defeat the mighty Sledgehammer would be to adopt his unorthodox style. I also rolled up my pants legs and delivered my throws while jumping, giving me the win.

Finals Rosh vs the Hood. It was an honor for me to play against someone who is not just a friend, and not just one of the top female players on the Pro Tour, but one of the top players period. She's beaten Pete Lovering in International competition, and lost to the Midnight Rider at the Atlantic Yards smackdown. I knew I had to change up my game, so I went with Drunken Style. Deceptively mobile footwork and an arrhythmic delivery style threw off any chance of the Hood reading my tells. I won the match and the tourney, and collected my winnings.

-While I'm bragging, I also won a 150 player exhibition tournament before the screening of some RPS movie that was filmed about ten years ago. Nothing ever became of the movie, and I barely remembered being in it, but the director (Mark, I think) was on hand offering popcorn and a soda for the "last person standing" in a match against one person on stage. All audience members started off on their feet, remaining standing if they won or tied a throw. As the field wound down to five, I turned my back to the stage; I already had the game in the bag. After winning, I made my way to the stage and snatched the snacks from Mark, in the process snarling "At least I got something out of it." (my involvement in his production.) The popcorn gave me a stomach ache.

-Most Notable Absence: The 2008 Internationals were definitely missing a presence from previous years. And no, I'm not talking about the Saint. Or Doug and Lisa Walker (I could never figure out what they did, anyway; they're not players...) Or even Good Tymez. I'm talking about an Internationals institution since 2003 whose absence left the entire player pool deeply saddened. I refer to nothing other than the lack of karaoke this year. I suppose Good Tymez made it easy; karaoke on request at a place you're going to be anyway is hard to beat. I know I was worse without my annual dose of Urbanus tearing up Wham Rap or "One Thing Leads to Another" (a song Taxman claims Urbanus "ruined for life" for him. I know what he means; the original barely holds a candle to Urbanus' superior cover.) Next year we really have to get on top of this. Perhaps karaoke AT the official players' reception wouldn't be a horrible idea?

I agree, thanks for the pics martinburley, and I hope your UK adventure is going well.

Rosh, sounds like a tough competition pool indeed. Wish I was there. In fact, that reminds me. We ought to start planning how to smuggle me in underage.

On that note, I have discovered that Rosh has (accidentally?) set up an anti-Franklint firewall, that stops any of my communication attempts from getting through to him. If someone could repost what I've written, that would be appreciated.

Cheers,Franklint

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-Winner of the Best New Bull Boarder of 2007 award.-First ever Expert RPS Player born of the Roshambollah Training Systems RPS program.-First ever Australian to lose to a Norwegian in competition play.

As one who makes a living out of RPS, I'd like to throw in my two bobs worth.

My general view is that money is made round to go 'round. Recessions occur when people stop swapping it and start hoarding it in the belief that they may need it later because it will become scarce. If everyone does that it becomes a self truth.

The 12k that Yahoo put up does not save 1430 jobs. It doesn't save 1 job. It would be lucky to save 1/5th of a job. But it keeps me flying to Canada to claim it.

With all this talk of finances and RPS, it might be illuminating to point out what is possible with RPS when profit is taken out of the equation:

According to this article, just last Sunday, the University of Illinois threw their third annual charity RPS tournament.

To sum up the specifics, 2000 people paid $10 each to attend. Only half of those who entered showed up to compete (the Bears were playing.) The entry fees, combined with a matching grant, netted $30,000 for charity, paying for 300 one-week summer camp scholarships for local underprivileged children.

For the $10 entry fee, each participant recieved a t-shirt and $30 in coupons from local merchants. The winner recieved a trip to Acapulco.

This is math with which we can all agree, and shows what is possible with the True Spirit of Outreach. It reminds me also of a conversation I had with Phil Gordon, professional poker player and head referee of another RPS League. "Are you guys involved with charity yet?" he once asked me, referring to that League in particular, and by extension to RPS as a whole. "Not yet," was my response. He and his business partner Rafe just laughed quietly and shook their heads. Something to think about, for sure...